I can't reach Google from China

'The operation timed out when attempting to contact www.google.com'

bathrobe

I'm located in China. Today it is impossible to get either www.google.com or www.google.co.jp (Japanese Google).

Is this affecting anyone else? Or is it only China? (or only me?)

Knowles

2:26 pm on Sep 2, 2002 (gmt 0)

I saw that bobriggs, they even linked back! :) I thought the first one was a quote from this thread as well but I couldn't find it.

Editted because I didnt see the link back to the forum, they still didnt cite this forum as to where they got the info though

[edited by: Knowles at 3:44 pm (utc) on Sep. 2, 2002]

Allergic

2:30 pm on Sep 2, 2002 (gmt 0)

Yes all the news talk about this. You got a alternative with CometSearch who is exact clone of Google and have Cache (archive copy) and Related pages. For the chinese caracters and near like Google you also have Openfind. Good luck to folks out there !

Dumpy

2:41 pm on Sep 2, 2002 (gmt 0)

I would advise caution in telling someone how to bypass legal restrictions placed by the Chinese Government. You may cause their family to be harmed.

unauthorised

I can't even access this site for a whole hour, obviously every website seems to have problem.

HTTP reset is issued by the giant CISCO router and great firewall.

I can not view dailynews.yahoo.com, where the report from Reuter is located, but I managed to download the article with a wget on my Linux box.

BBC.uk is IP blocked,so no way to retrieve the page.

Doooooomed.

bateman_ap

3:36 pm on Sep 2, 2002 (gmt 0)

There is a BBC linkback as well so expect a traffic spike!

heini

4:07 pm on Sep 2, 2002 (gmt 0)

We were asked by members involved in this situation to try and leave out any possible inflammatory messages, precisely because this may put those people in danger.

Access to Google sites apparently being blocked by official agencies in China has got major exposure in mainstream media by now. We are in a situation, where we are not only watching, but are to a certain extent involved. So lets all be a bit careful in this situation. Thanks for your understanding.

Helpmebe1

dantheman

bathrobe

11:22 pm on Sep 2, 2002 (gmt 0)

NFFC, I don't know if cache is a problem. In the past I've tried to get geocities articles through cache, with no more success than going direct to the site. They seem to be able to block cached articles. (Explanatory note: geocities is inaccessible from China)

bathrobe

3:30 am on Sep 3, 2002 (gmt 0)

If I may put my views on the blocking of Google:

There is a surprising amount of free speech in China, much more than people overseas suspect. But there are limits. For various reasons, the Chinese government cannot afford to allow a completely free flow of information among its citizens.

The government has made sustained efforts to bring the Internet under control. When Yahoo knuckled under last month, it should have been clear that Google was next. Google's untrammelled and (largely) unbiased flow of information could not go unchecked.

Google is not yet a big player in China, although it is growing. Most Chinese go through local portals like Sina and Sohu. These are pay-for-listing portals and are well controlled. Sina used to be a single worldwide portal but was split into separate portals (U.S., China, Taiwan, etc.) a few years ago due to Chinese pressure.

The blocking of Google should not be seen as a mindless action - the Chinese are more sophisticated than that. The Chinese government has essentially served notice that they have both the willpower and the technical wherewithal to block any site that does not accommodate their wishes. I would not be surprised if this were the opening gambit in forging an agreement to restrict the kind of information that Google offers to Chinese users, perhaps a filter on political material similar to filters on pornographic content for juvenile users.

I suspect that this may be something of a test case for Google. Google's main attraction is that it has so far resisted the kind of commercial pressures that have compromised the credibility of other search engines. If Google caves in to Chinese government pressure, will it be the beginning of the end of the Google myth? It will be interesting to see how events unfold.

Brett_Tabke

3:49 am on Sep 3, 2002 (gmt 0)

So Yahoo apparently caved in and voluntarily excersized editorial control on content delivered to China.

With the contract extension (yahoo back fill provider [webmasterworld.com]) reported by cnet to be up yesterday, I just see this whole thing some how connected to that.

Ailin

8:20 am on Sep 3, 2002 (gmt 0)

I just got to work after a long weekend of holidaying in China, and, whoa...no google, and then I come across the news in places like this forum.

It's quite a shock. I've always considered google my lifeline to the outside. As mentioned, that cache function was always useful...and most certainly a thorn in the side of the government.

We'll have to see how things turn out. At the very least, there are ways around this situation.

allybongo

9:30 am on Sep 3, 2002 (gmt 0)

It's all starting to make sense now. My parents live near Shanghai and have been having massive problems with the internet in the last few days. Apparently some times it works, sometimes not. Not that I can email them about it or anything as it probably wouldn't get there.

Woz

Of the current TEN news items on Search Engine provided by Moreover, NINE are about China/Google.

It certainly is getting a lot of airplay. And to think, but for a man in a bathrobe, the rest of the world may have taken a little longer to cotton on.

Onya Woz

[added] Mike, that link is coming up 404.

Chris_R

12:28 pm on Sep 3, 2002 (gmt 0)

"Google is hugely popular among China's 45 million Internet users because of its wide-ranging search capacity. A search in English for Jiang's name turns up links to 156,000 Web sites mentioning him.

By contrast, a search on Sina.com, another portal that is popular in China, turns up just 1,600 mentions of Jiang. The Chinese-language service of American search engine Yahoo! turns up just 24 results. "

celerityfm

1:18 pm on Sep 3, 2002 (gmt 0)

Hmmm disturbing.

Bathrobe and other blocked users:

You may try a program by Cult of the Dead Cow called "peak-a-booty," specifically written for these instances:

Peek-A-Booty is a peer to peer proxying network that uses SSL to obfuscate the nature of content being sent over connections to the network. In theory, a user specifies a network node (there is no facility for auto-detection for security purposes), and then they can route their real requests for data through that node to conceal what they are actually wanting. It's essentially just an anonymous proxy service that has the advantage of using a network of smaller and hopefully less visible nodes to make it difficult to block off the network by applying firewall filters.

celerityfm

1:24 pm on Sep 3, 2002 (gmt 0)

Oh and I saw this quote:

"'We are currently working with Chinese officials to get our full service restored to the millions of Chinese users who depend on Google every day,' [Google] said in a statement." From [news.bbc.co.uk...]

Wow! Way to go Google :)... except, I hope that it doesn't involve censoring SERPs... doh! I guess censored Google is better then no Google...

Brad

1:49 pm on Sep 3, 2002 (gmt 0)

>>I guess censored Google is better then no Google...

I am not so sure. Books used to be "Banned in Boston" which turned out to be a great marketing tool for the books and probably increased sales in the long run. ;)

If I were Google, rather than compromise and censor, I would wear it like a badge of honor and use it as a seal of editorial integrity. Great marketing opportunity here for Google. :)

kch333

3:08 pm on Sep 3, 2002 (gmt 0)

from china....

here most people are learning how to find proxy or any other available method to reach google....

we are conquering ....

2000c com

Chris_R

3:36 pm on Sep 3, 2002 (gmt 0)

I agree it would be ungoogle like to censor google - even for a country of a billion people.

Although I don't get what google would be doing to work on this. It isn't like google really has anything to offer an oppressive regime.

I doubt the people of China want their google censored.

China needs to get with the program.

Google needs to run their search engine.

lgn

3:50 pm on Sep 3, 2002 (gmt 0)

Be glad you don't live in North Korea. Only the "Great Leader Junior" has access to the Internet.